‘In a heartbeat, I’d do it again’: School van driver rushed child who got stabbed to police for help

PITTSBURGH — A school van driver who was in the right place at the right time helped save a child’s life after he was stabbed by his mother.

Sirens and screams filled the streets of the Hill District after the incident.

“We were getting the last kid on our route to go to school when the kid hops in, a guy runs out and comes to our van saying, help, help, help his son,” said a 14-year-old Pittsburgh Public School student.

This teenager was on a school van and told Channel 11 that the man was carrying a little boy who was bleeding from the neck.

“Every kid on the bus is scared, there are three of us and we all say, ‘Just take him to the hospital. Take him to the hospital,’” the teenager told Channel 11.

But instead, the van driver took the father and 3-year-old to the Zone 2 police station. The teenager said he believes the driver did everything right at the moment.

Channel 11 News spoke with that driver, an unlikely good Samaritan, who helped save one of the boys.

“This guy comes up with a baby bleeding and jumps in the van,” said bus driver Glenn Ramsey. “Screaming, hollering, ‘help, help me, please my baby got stabbed.’”

The father was frantic, naked and holding his limp 3-year-old son as he jumped on before the doors shut.

Ramsey threw the van in drive and went to the police station.

“While the dude was sitting next to me, he just hung his head saying don’t leave him,” the teenager said.

Officers helped stop the bleeding and medics rushed the boy to the Children’s Hospital.

Neighbors said that once the father was at Zone 2 getting help, he went running back to the house and said there were more kids. In that Dinwiddie Street house, officers found a 7-year-old boy with stab wounds.

The children’s mother, Sydnie Jefferson, 29, is facing charges of attempted homicide, as well as aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of her children.

Ramsey says if he wasn’t there at the time, this could have been a very different ending.

“In a heartbeat, I’d do it again. I wouldn’t think twice, I didn’t think twice,” Ramsey said.

Pittsburgh Public Schools told Channel 11 it is offering counseling to the students on the van.

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